Natick Schools Releases Statement Condemning Racial Attacks Across US

NATICK, MA - Natick Public Schools Superintendent Anna Nolin released a statement condemning racism in response to what appeared to be racially motivated attacks across the country over the past week after meeting with administrators on Sunday.

"As a district, we are working to ensure that all our staff, students, and family feel connected to our learning organization and that they belong in it," Nolin said in the statement. "Attacks on anyone, motivated by hate of any type, works counter to our goals and the health, well-being, and safety of our community.

"We condemn these racist acts, just as we condemn[ed] attacks towards Jews and Muslims before, come together to support our community as we grapple with these acts, and process them with our staff and students."

She noted past responses by the district to attacks in Lakewood last month, Pittsburg in 2018, and New Zealand in March 2019, respectively.

Nolin went on to describe attacks on an Asian business district in Dallas on Wednesday where three Asian women were shot.

"This follows on other attacks, possibly linked, on April 2nd in the same area," she said, citing a New York TImes article describing increasing violence against Asian Americans.

Saturday's attack by an armed teen at a Buffalo supermarket prompted the meeting with school administrators to determine how to best support students and staff. The white male livestreamed the event as he killed 10 people and wounded three - 11 of whom were Black.

"On Saturday, a teen gunman, who had been writing and sharing a self-described White Supremacist, fascist, and anti-Semitic manifesto publicly online walked into a Buffalo grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood and shot many – traveling 200 miles to specifically do the attack while live streaming it. He killed 10 people and wounded three, 11 of those shot were Black," Nolin wrote, linking a New York Times article to her statement.

"We condemn these racially-motivated acts of hate," she continued. "We cherish our staff and children and therefore administrators came together on Sunday to ensure we have a coordinated response for our community. We may not get everything right in how we process such events and grow in our ability to fight hate, but we press on and lean in."

There will be an optional staff meeting Monday for staff members who may need support as well as to discuss age-appropriate ways to help students "process and acknowledge how difficult, sad, upsetting, angering, and traumatizing hearing about these events can be.

"To say and do nothing is to allow it to stand and normalize it," Nolin said, adding that the student population is 27% children of color and that there are more than 60 languages spoken in the school district. "This cannot be."

Nolin planned to discuss the district's response at a staff meeting at 8 a.m. at the Lilja Elementary School.